China: AREVA consolidates its leading position as fuel component supplier

AREVA announces it has delivered a batch of fuel assembly components to its partner CNNC Fuel Assembly Corporation*, comprising 700 assemblies and 800 control rod clusters**. This delivery is the biggest completed to date by the group in China, and consolidates the excellent performance in this area over the course of the year by CNNC Fuel Assembly Corporation and AREVA.

In total, components equivalent to about 1,600 fuel assemblies and associated control rod clusters have been delivered to China in 2011. This exceptional performance, equivalent to 30 reloads for 1000 MWe Pressurised Water Reactors (CPR 1000 or M310+), equates for AREVA to an increase in sales in China of 60% compared with last year.

The marked step-up in demand for nuclear services is proof of the vitality of the Chinese market, whose nuclear fleet is set to grow considerably over the coming years. At present, AREVA supplies 100% of the imported key components used in China to fabricate AFA 3G assemblies, which are used in most Chinese Generation 2 Pressurised Water Reactors reactors.

Markus Birkhofer, Vice-President of the Business Unit Fuel, declared that: "This performance is the result of a long-lasting history of cooperation with CNNC.  AREVA teams have been fully mobilized to build a high level of trust with the customer based on performance and reliability of our offer. This level of commitment ensures our group's position as a major player on the Chinese nuclear market." 

*A subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation, CNNC Fuel Assembly Corporation specializes in manufacturing fuel assemblies. The components are manufactured in the AREVA plants in Romans, Pierrelatte and Paimboeuf, and are then delivered to CNNC fuel manufacturing plant located at Yibin in Sichuan province of China, to be assembled. The Yibin plant then supplies several Chinese utilities.

**In a nuclear reactor core, the chain reaction is regulated by control rod clusters. These have three functions: protect the core, regulate power and control temperature.